By Kevin Daniel Leahy (5/17/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)

BACKGROUND: While visiting Jordan during October of last year, Alu Alkhanov went on record, complaining that his then-first deputy prime minister, Ramzan Kadyrov, was undermining his rule as president. This was the first overt indication of tension between the two men since Alkhanov – equipped with the Kadyrovsty’s requisite blessing – acceded to the presidency in August 2004. Back then, Kadyrov heralded him as “a steadfast general, a firm politician and a principal opponent of separatism”.

By Stephen Blank (5/17/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)

BACKGROUND: The statements and intentions coming out of Washington do not herald the advance of a new Cold War, as some of the more hysterical comments coming out of Moscow indicated, but the could very well signify an end to strategic partnership. More precisely, they do signify Washington\'s realization, albeit rather late in the game, that geopolitical rivalry in the borderlands is for real and not as former State Department officials claimed, a “mug’s game.” Win-win solutions involving Moscow and Washington are unlikely to be broached by Washington, and it may more forthrightly acknowledge that a rivalry in these areas exists.

By Murad Batal al-Shishani (5/3/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)

BACKGROUND:This development calls to mind the policy of the Tsarist General Yermolov, who came to Chechnya and the North Caucasus following his war on Napoleon in the first decade of the nineteenth century. In 1817, he built the Grozny fortress, from “terror” in Russian, in order to “terrorize” Chechens, and cut and burnt down forests because they were hideouts for Chechen fighters. If that was a huge loss by that era’s terms, the environmental situation in Chechnya is catastrophic in modern times, given the qualities and quantities of weaponry used in the present Russian war.